In 1855 a circuit court for California was created by Congress, and
clothed with the ordinary jurisdiction of the several circuit courts
of the United States. Hon. M. Hall McAllister was appointed its judge.
In January, 1863, he resigned and my appointment as his successor was
recommended by our Senators. They telegraphed me what they had done,
and I replied that I could not accept the place, that I preferred to
remain Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State than to be a
judge of an inferior federal court, but that if a new justice were
added to the Supreme Court of the United States, I would accept the
office if tendered to me. Notwithstanding this reply my appointment
was urged, and I was nominated by the President. The Senators have
since told me that they pressed my nomination from a belief that
another justice would soon be added to the Supreme Court, and that
the appointment would be made from the Pacific States, and that if
I were circuit judge it would more likely be tendered to me than to
any one else. The interests of those States were so great, and from
the character of their land titles, and their mines of gold and
silver, were in some respects so different from those of the Eastern
States, that it was deemed important to have some one familiar with
them on the Supreme Bench of the United States. Accordingly, while
my nomination for circuit judge was pending before the Senate, a bill
providing for an additional justice of the Supreme Court, and making
the Pacific States a new circuit, was introduced into both Houses of
Congress, and on the last day of the session, March 3d, 1863, it
became a law. Soon after the adjournment of Congress, the entire
delegation from the Pacific States united in recommending my
appointment to the new office. The delegation then consisted of four
Senators and four Members of the House, of whom five were Democrats
and three Republicans; all of them were Union men. I was accordingly
nominated by the President, and the nomination was unanimously